Did you ever wonder how your business tickets and other office tasks were always seamless? For a busy professional, the administrative duties are done by the HR department often go unnoticed as he is always involved with the projects to meet their respective deadlines.
If you are an employer, the chances of you being involved in the administrative tasks are almost negligible but you are an aspirant who wants to get a job as an administrative professional, it is necessary to have a sound knowledge of it and what techniques you should be used to conquer the admin tasks effectively.
To understand the admin related duties and how he should proceed with them, we are going to check the following points in this article -
- What are admin tasks?
- Does each employee have administrative duties?
- What work does an administrative professional perform?
- How can the Admin Conquer his tasks efficiently?
What are Admin Tasks?
An entrepreneur needs to employ HR professionals not only for recruiting talented employees but also to perform the non-profit generating tasks for the smooth functioning of his organization. These tasks are widely known as the Admin tasks and play a very vital role for all the departments of the office space. It helps to keep things organized in the company and ensures its proper functioning to achieve the core goals.
Depending on the sector and type of industry by the founder, admin tasks vary in the businesses. The administrative professionals coordinate the availability of the required information and provide the necessary support for the organization. The common admin tasks performed by these professionals include.
- Bookkeeping
- Scheduling
- Organizing
- Customer Service
Does each employee have administrative duties?
According to a study published by Mckinsey & Company, an average employee spends nearly 28% of his work time each day reading and answering professional emails. Moreover, the study also highlighted the point that employees need to dedicate 14% of their workday to internal communication and collaboration with other colleagues as essential for the project. It means, the workers dedicate only 39% of their professional time to doing the role-specific tasks whereas the rest is consumed by admin work. It implies that overall for better functioning of the project’s schedule, every employee has to perform a few admin tasks on his part to meet the target deadlines and achieve the company’s goals.
What work does an Administrative Professional perform?
If you are a job seeker targeting an administrative role, you must have a sound idea about the various admin tasks expected to be performed by an administrative professional. Administrative professionals perform the organizing and administrative tasks more effectively as they have to be vigilant about the email responses and schedules of the other professionals in the office to increase productivity. The common administrative tasks performed by the HR professionals who are involved in admin work for some businesses include -
Answering and transferring phone calls of the client to the respective team
The most common admin task is to answer a client call to give business information directly. It means the admin professional must resolve all the doubts of a tentative customer or past customers as it leaves a lasting impression on the caller. Hence, the admin professionals must greet the caller and talk professionally in a soft manner. If the issue cannot be solved by the professional, he must take steps to transfer the call to an individual of the respective team who can give a satisfactory answer to the query.
Managing email inquiries for a new client or internal communication of the employees
As an administrative professional, one of the most important admin tasks is to send professional emails to the clients to convey the requested information. Email is the most secure way and assists to keep a permanent record of business communications.
Processing and transferring protected data related to office projects as required
One of the most important admin tasks includes is keeping updated data entries in the company’s database. It can be a list of employees, their data collected at the time of employment, data related to projects and their payments. The HR professionals also need to maintain accounting records and phone conversations done with the clients for future references. He is also expected to keep a record of calls done with customers if necessary. This information should be kept confidential by the admin.
Scheduling client appointments
Another important task performed by these professionals is checking and scheduling the employer’s calendar with the existing and prospective clients. He is responsible for keeping correct and concise information about the business owner’s weekly schedule and checking with the client via calls for the appointment time. He must also book an appointment room, a venue or fix a follow-up appointment call as necessary.
Using office-related technology or a new machine
When a new employee joins the company, the admin has to make him comfortable with the work desk and other related machines available in the office. HR must give full information about the employer’s rules, the computer system and other machines such as a printer, scanner or fax machines. He should give complete information about the company’s website and other social media handles. Also, it is the admin’s task to be updated with the latest technologies and how to schedule a video conference call using the appropriate software. The use of Zoom, Google Meet and Microsoft Teams has gained maximum popularity in many businesses.
Onboarding of new employees
One of the crucial admin tasks is searching and onboarding new employees for the company whenever there is a vacant position or for increasing the existing team. He should also take efforts to ensure the new employee feels comfortable at the workplace and gets adjusted with his teammates. The HR must give a hands-on demo on how to use the company’s systems, must provide official login details and if required even brush up his/her interpersonal skills to help him connect and communicate with the other colleagues in the new environment.
How can the Admin Conquer his Tasks Efficiently?
Looking at the multiple admin tasks listed above, it is obvious that an admin employee can get confused about how to handle all this together. Time management is a key skill of the admin professional and ignoring even a single duty could prove risky for the business. It means the employer could lose some good clients and even compel his outstanding star performers to look for an alternative job. To avoid this negative effect in the office space, the HR professional who is often involved in admin tasks must use the following tactics to complete them in the middle of other duties -
Focus on what’s important
Even if the task looks meaningless but is necessary for the right business management, the HR professional must concentrate on what is important in it. The admin might even be bored of doing it repeatedly for various clients and even feel it is not for the pay stub he receives.
Instead of thinking these negative thoughts, the admin professional must positively concentrate on the task. It could make another professional’s job easier and even prevent possible future issues for the organization. The task could be a valuable service for the client and he might extend the contract for your company seeing the business ethics of the professionals. When the admin notices all these benefits, it could keep him motivated to go through the checklists and other documents multiple times.
Reframe the task as per your understanding
A fully flooded inbox can take away the enthusiasm of an admin professional. To avoid this, he must simplify the admin’s task by reframing the tasks which seem not been done before. Doing segregation of the professional mails according to projects and team members can help you declutter the inbox to a large extent. It is a known fact that a professional’s mail is always flooded by various mails and can get full again if he has cleared the unread message on the previous day.
If you have a large number of unread emails, it means more expertise is required for the admin’s task. Putting more effort to answer these emails should be counted as an opportunity by the admin professional. It means he is serious about helping his colleagues and wants to properly respond to the clients. It shows your sincere attitude towards the job and hence, an inbox with many unread messages does not mean you have a lazy approach towards the job.
Fix a time limit
The admin tasks can be completed within a short interval if HR decides to fix a particular schedule for it. As these tasks do not require many intelligent efforts, he can prepare a calendar for a week where he will schedule them to post the lunch or tea break as employees do take a few minutes to get back into action after these short time off from the desk.
Also, to ensure he does not dedicate a substantial time doing these mundane duties, the professional can set an alarm or timer which triggers him to pay attention to other important duties and continue the remaining task next time. If the admin professional has decided on a time limit for these tasks, he would be able to complete other important duties on time and he would not have to extend his working hours post the office timings.
Choose how you are going to reward yourself
Sometimes, rewarding yourself can also play a big morale booster. Hence, if the professional involved in admin tasks decides to do give a pat on the back for himself for completing the task before the deadline, it not only increases his confidence but also does not make him feel dull when he has to do the same task again for the next month. The HR can always rejoice and make himself happier with small rewards and celebrate his work achievement in the way he likes. It could be a short walk during the break time or he can indulge in some sweet tooth for completing the task well before the deadline.
Consider delegating the admin task amongst the team
If the admin professional is involved in a lot of other responsibilities and finds there is uncertainty about the completion of admin tasks, he can always consider delegating the task to a co-worker in the team to ensure its timely completion. Also, the use of advanced technology can make has made it easier for professionals to decide and schedule team meetings within their team which has reduced the burden of HR professionals. The use of various software Microsoft Teams, Google Meeting, Skype or directly connecting with the client through phone number has even simplified the scheduling of meetings and reduced admin’s work to a large extent.
Conclusion
Admin tasks can be boring as they are repetitive after a certain period or if only one HR professional has to handle those duties. To make the administrative work more interesting, it is always a good idea to work in an organized manner based on priority. Deskera provides an integrated HRMS software that lets the HR professionals handle HR and admin tasks effectively which will prove resourceful for your organization.
How Deskera Can Assist You?
As a business, you must be diligent with the employee payroll system. Deskera People allows you to conveniently manage payroll, leave, attendance, and other expenses. Generating payslips for your employees is now easy as the platform also digitizes and automates HR processes.
Key Takeaways
- In most business organisations, HR employees have to handle the admin tasks apart from the HR duties.
- If the company hires an administrative assistant to assist the HR professional, he would be responsible for handling duties like bookkeeping, scheduling meetings, responding to emails, answering client calls.
- In an organization where the HR has to handle these duties, he must think of innovative ways to complete these mundane admin tasks for the proper functioning of the organization.
- He is expected to answer client queries, professionally respond to them over the phone or an email in a soft manner. Moreover, he should take responsibility for onboarding the new employees and making them acquainted with the office space, work desk and other common machines. He must take feedback from the employees to maintain a good environment and develop the interpersonal skills of the hesitating employees.
- To ensure his other duties are completed along with the admin tasks, he should fix a schedule and set a certain time limit for these tasks. Dividing the workload by segregating them as per the priorities can assist him to complete the tasks faster.
- The admin professional must consider rewarding himself for the successful handling of the tasks to boost self morale at the workplace. In case, he has a huge pile of other responsibilities, he must delegate the tasks to other members within his team for the smooth functioning of the organization.
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